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Despite efforts to get the track dry to allow for a second round of qualifying today at ETS Slovakia, the decision has been made to defer Q2 to the tomorrow’s final day at the penultimate round of the championship.  Having just managed to get the first round of qualifying completed after a wet start to the day and Friday having been a washout, the rain returned to the Hudy Arena as Q2 got underway stopping the action once again.  Starting as a light drizzle it worsened and while many drivers took to sweeping and drying the track once the rain stopped, the evening drop in temperature and lack of sunshine mean’t it never completely dried. Opened for free practice, cars struggling to get around, the decision was then made to call it a day.  With Sunday’s forecast showing a nice dry day in Trencin, the organisers have set a 07:00 start time so as to get a second round of qualifying in ahead of running the finals.  With just two rounds of qualifying, drivers will count their best round with the fastest time the tie breaker leaving overnight Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho in a strong position to take the overall TQ. Such an outcome would secure the Xray driver back to back ETS titles.

View our complete event coverage here.

Despite efforts to get the track dry to allow for a second round of qualifying today at ETS Slovakia, the decision has been made to defer Q2 to the tomorrow’s final day at the penultimate round of the championship.  Having just managed to get the first round of qualifying completed after a wet start to the day and Friday having been a washout, the rain returned to the Hudy Arena as Q2 got underway stopping the action once again.  Starting as a light drizzle it worsened and while many drivers took to sweeping and drying the track once the rain stopped, the evening drop in temperature and lack of sunshine mean’t it never completely dried. Opened for free practice, cars struggling to get around, the decision was then made to call it a day.  With Sunday’s forecast showing a nice dry day in Trencin, the organisers have set a 07:00 start time so as to get a second round of qualifying in ahead of running the finals.  With just two rounds of qualifying, drivers will count their best round with the fastest time the tie breaker leaving overnight Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho in a strong position to take the overall TQ. Such an outcome would secure the Xray driver back to back ETS titles.

View our event image gallery here.

Making its debut here at the ETS in Slovakia, Team Magic are showing off their new E4 RS4 touring car. Featuring an all new 2.4mm chassis, the main bulkheads front and rear have been positioned closer to the centre of the car and feature wider spaced mounting points to eliminate flex in this area. A complex single piece central motor & spur gear mount replace what was previously 5 pieces and now give the option of different flex points for further adjusting the car’s balance. A central flex plate between the motor mount and all new servo mount is combined with a damper tube which helps control the forward flex in the car. Finally the car sports all new big bore shocks, with claims that they are shorter than those currently in use by the other cars on the market yet can accommodate up to 25mm springs. Still using non anodised parts for this event, the car only arriving in Europe on Monday, it is expected to be released in mid July.

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With rain effectively wiping out yesterday’s action at the Hudy Arena, qualifying at Euro Touring Series finally got underway this afternoon with Bruno Coelho taking an important TQ run in the first of the 3 rescheduled qualifiers from a surprise Naoto Matsukura.  With drivers getting only 3-minutes of running yesterday, they would again have to play the waiting game this morning as further rain delayed proceedings at the 5th round of the championship.  Getting another 3-minute practice run once the track had dried after the morning downpour the expectation of further rain meant the stakes for Q1 were high.  Having topped Thursday’s sun drenched free practice, it would be Marc Rheinard who led away the top heat but a minute in the Infinity driver would make a mistake. This left team-mate Matsukura to go to the top but a strong finish from Coelho, who had issues with his Xray being blown around the track by the wind, allowed the champion elect to TQ by 7/10ths from Matsukura with Alexander Hagberg getting third ahead of Rheinard.  For Coelho’s only remaining title contender, Ronald Volker, the event is proving hugely challenging with the Yokomo driver describing his P6 as a ‘miracle’.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

With rain effectively wiping out yesterday’s action at the Hudy Arena, qualifying at Euro Touring Series finally got underway this afternoon with Bruno Coelho taking an important TQ run in the first of the 3 rescheduled qualifiers from a surprise Naoto Matsukura.  With drivers getting only 3-minutes of running yesterday, they would again have to play the waiting game this morning as further rain delayed proceedings at the 5th round of the championship.  Getting another 3-minute practice run once the track had dried after the morning downpour the expectation of further rain meant the stakes for Q1 were high.  Having topped Thursday’s sun drenched free practice, it would be Marc Rheinard who led away the top heat but a minute in the Infinity driver would make a mistake. This left team-mate Matsukura to go to the top but a strong finish from Coelho, who had issues with his Xray being blown around the track by the wind, allowed the champion elect to TQ by 7/10ths from Matsukura with Alexander Hagberg getting third ahead of Rheinard.  For Coelho’s only remaining title contender, Ronald Volker, the event is proving hugely challenging with the Yokomo driver describing his P6 as a ‘miracle’.

‘Super difficult’ was Coelho’s reaction afterwards.  Looking to put to bed a back to back ETS titles with the overall TQ, he continued, ‘it was not the car but the conditions.  The wind caused me to lose the car 3 times.  When the car is not right you know where you can have problems but with the wind it surprises you.  It even pushed me up onto the grass’.  Going for his third win in a row at what is his Xray team’s home track, the said, ‘Fortunately while Matsukura got close to me I knew I was faster and he only caught me because of the wind. I tried to force to the end and I was able to get first’.  The significance of Q1 was highlighted by the fact as the second round of qualifying got underway it started raining again, although one positive is that tomorrow is showing as good meaning the finals should run without interruption.

A very pleased Matsukura summed up his first competitive ETS showing for a long time with, ‘This feels good for me to have no mistakes and to be able to drive a controlled race. Before I was not able to battle at the front. I’m super happy’. Working the IF14’s designer Kotonori Fujiwara as his mechanic this weekend, the 2014 World Champion said this was also a big factor in his performance.  Warming up for the event with a win at the most recent round of the CETC in China, in terms of his car he said, ‘my car was pretty good but after 3-minutes it started to get a little push and then Bruno could pull a gap.  I will change the set-up for the next one to make it more consistent for the full run’.

Helping Xray to take a 1-2 here the last two years, Hagberg summed up the first qualifier as ‘pretty good’ but like his team-mate said the windy conditions made it unpredictable. Describing it as ‘a safe run’, the Swede said he took ‘no risks considering how unpredictable the weather is’ adding ‘3rd is a good result to have’.  Pleased with the performance of his T4 he said, ‘I will leave it the same and just push more in the next one’.

Fastest in free practice, Rheinard said, ‘it didn’t feel as before, it felt loose so I didn’t have the right feeling to push the car’.  Coming into the event on the back of his 6th Reedy Race of Champions win, he continued, ‘I made a mistake, without it I could have got third but that’s still not what it should have been.  At least I got 4th I suppose’.

Posting the fifth fastest time, Freddy Sudhoff said, ‘that was pretty good, everything went fine’.  He added, ‘actually since the first practice I have been confident with the set-up and the track’.  The Awesomatix driver said, ‘I took it a little easy due to the weather so I did not have any hot laps but it was a good start’.  Asked about the wind effecting his car the German replied, ‘a few laps in the car pushed a little more but it wasn’t a big problem for me’.  For Q2, which looks now like being the only other qualifier they will fit in due to the latest rain, he will leave his kit standard A800 unchanged.

Finishing almost 5-seconds off Coelho’s pace, Volker didn’t hold back on his issues.  The World Champion described his car as ‘horrible in the opening laps’ highlighting that the problem has been there since Thursday’s free practice.  He continued, ‘there is absolutely no rear grip, its a miracle finishing P6’.  Running last in the heat, the German said he had to use the time to know when it was the last lap so he could launch his car across the finish line, the 2/10th gained the only reason he got 6th as apposed to a P10.  He concluded, ‘We are totally off the pace in the beginning and need to do big changes in order to get up there but thats going to be very tough’.  Behind Volker, team-mate Christopher Krapp was the next fastest Yokomo with newly crowned Reedy Race Open Champion Jin Sawada taking his Destiny to 8th for the round.

In the Xray Pro Stock class it was the Tamiya of Christian Donath that took the first TQ.  During the first attempt at qualifying yesterday, the rain arrived before all the Pro Stock heats were completed but getting the remaining three heats done today it was Donath who was fastest from the Yokomo of former Champion Martin Hofer with Xray’s Tom Krägefski completing the Top 3.  Best of the winners so far this season would be ETS Italy winner Max Mächler who was fifth fastest.  In the Scorpion Power Formula class Shepherd’s Olivier Bultynck took Q1 ahead of Jan Ratheisky and Tim Benson with Tonisport owner Toni Rheinard coming out of retirement to set an impressive P4 time ahead of double winner David Ehrbar. 

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Protoform’s latest oval racing lid is the RT-C lightweight rubber tyre body shell. The XFINITY Series continues to provide full scale stock car fans with close exciting racing in 2017. Protoform now presents an oval body inspired by the newest generation of these cars. The RT-C has a bit of a twist though, as it is configured to fit perfectly over the taller rubber and capped tyres. Rubber tyres on carpet oval cars have put driving skill and a new element of fun into the oval scene. The longer lasting rubber tyre format saves time and money as well, eliminating the tyre truing process. The RT-C offers a large rear spoiler to aid in tuning – for that perfect front to rear balance, while the left side of the body is bumped out for extra battery clearance. The RT-C is produced in high-quality .025″ polycarbonate and includes spoiler mounting hardware, protective film, window masks and a decal sheet. This body will also fit most popular 200mm sedan chassis.

Source: Protoform [racepf.com]

Coming from MIP and made for the TLR 22 series of buggies and trucks is the Bi-Metal Super Diff kit. It features a race-proven 2-piece outdrive design that helps to shed about 30 percent of the OEM rotational mass without sacrificing strength and durability. To compliment the advantages of the Bi-Metal outdrives it also includes all-American diff components including tungsten carbide diff balls, diff rings, 2-piece captured thrust assembly, bearings, machined aluminium T-Nut, and a new spring/screw. Also part of the package are updated aluminium diff hubs that now accept the TLR dimension diff rings, allowing for easier rebuilds. The diff fits all 22 series vehicles and it is available now.

Source: MIP [miponline.com]

Protoform have introduced the next evolution of the IFMAR World title-winning P37 body shell, the P47-N. Featuring all-new aero concepts and some design cues never before seen in the class, the P47 was exhaustively tested by Protoform’s team to find a body that offers more precise and smooth steering, increased corner speed and forward bite, and additional top speed on long straights. A raised section of the left side window can be cut out to scoop air into the body for additional engine cooling, and a large high-downforce/low-drag wing complete the design. The body meets all EFRA (#2058), IFMAR and ROAR body rule requirements and is available as .025″ light weight and .030″ regular weight variant. Included with the P47 is a decal sheet, paint-then-peel overspray film, window masks and durable nylon wing mounting hardware.

Source: Protoform [racepf.com]